Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-01-20
WOMEN AS MEDICAL STUDENTS.
some Interesting Events in Their
Careers in New York.
CoDyri0ht1SS

liCh vi Inc leHlHlHe senueI, COiHlHeutSO
the Boston Medical Journal, reporting
her age as 90. She comes into the class
with great composure, takes off her bon.
net and puts it under the seat, exposing
fine phrenology, The effect on the class
has been good and great decorum Is OBJ.
served while she is present.
This young woman student, whom the
sprightly Baltimore Sun advised to con-
fine her practice when admitted to dis
eases Of the heart' became DIR. Elizabeth
Blackwell, the earliest woman physician
OF this country. For many years now she
has resided 10 England, but her sister,
DR.. Emily Blackwell, who shared with
her the struggles of those pioneer days,
is the present Dean of the Woman's Med
zeal College Of the New York Infirmary,
which was founded by the efforts of the
Blackwell sisters.
Stirring the open fire in her coy office
one bitter day last week Dr. Blackwell
said: The women who are studying
medicine In New York to-day form a
younger body than those who came to us
dozen or fifteen years ago, and this
change promises well for the continuance
of women in the profession. We used to
get women OF mature age, widows whose
hopes in life had dropped away from them,
nurses who lad served years IN the hos
pitfalls, teachers who thought another pro-
fesslOn promised better. Now we are
getting girls in their early twenties, who
bring Just as much earnestness, more en-
thusiasm and better training"
THE FEMALE MEDICAL STUDENTS.
in New York city form a class by tnem-
selyes-not large class numerically;
they hide away in the swarming life OF
the metropolis and are lost. But if one
happens to run across them, their indi-
Viduality marks them out at once as q
busy ,lcheery set, hard at work but usually
ready for irOlic; much like other girls
in their breezy, feminine ways, but hold
ing their WORK foremost and keeping one
object in life upperGest. In aye they
range from " to4e or s. 1t is very sell
!!I| Dr. !: i + @ eS5s
teinG tQE1EeMnn 20 lind herself voca-
t5ans a They have chosen theirs; they be-
we've I'm II and they devote themselves to
it right heartily.
Where do they come FROM They are
gathered from every nook and corner of
the country. California and Nebraska
send ruddy Western girls; Mississippi
and Tennessee contribute women OF the
new South; the Emerald Isle sends over
an LTlbu SITI. anu Culud mas AL almond
eyed Oriental to her credit. The womsn's
colleges, of course, are responsible for the
largest quota. Vassar, Smith, Wellesley
and Cornell have their contingent IN New
York, girl graduates TOO active mentally
to lie by on their oars when school days
were done. The academies and insti-
tutes. Wilbraham and WESLEYAN in New
England, and Packer in Brooklyn, furnish
students not few, and yet others come
from the high schools of the cities anu
country towns.
How do they live? Very few of the girl
students are burdened with an overplus
of money: some of them are decidedly
pinched for its lack. Two OF them showed
me their modest housekeeping ARRANGE
ments the other day. They have "fur-
nished rOom," not a large one, and a
tnird-Or was it a fourth floor back at
that. Their laudlady might have had
better taste in wall paper and carpets,
but good picture or two, q comfortable
litter OF books and papers, bloseoming
plants and the miscellaneous knicK-
Anacks that woman surrounds herself
with every where gave the place home
like look. Down in the corner OF the room
WAS little gas stove. That stove was
responsible for coffee in the mornin Z. tea
or chocolate at night. The BAKERS shelves
and the grocer's tin cans supplied the rest
of the breakfast and supper. This is
light hOusekeeDlnQ' as the student I'm.
derstands it, and may be varied on occa-
siOns OF extra testivity by visit to the
dining rom basement of decayed respec-
liability in the modest three-siory brick
around the corn,r, where you buy your
breakfast tickets at u sensible reduction
by the dozen, and where the bec ic-
checked serving maid screams: Beet
steak, pork steak, sausages, liver and
tripe" at each new conner until you know
by heart every possible variety OF inflec-
tion OF which that well-woru formula is
capable. The dlnner. of course, must be
little more substantial, for the medical
student knows too much of hygiene to neg
lect her own physique entirely; but her
thrifty WAYS in case of need bring the cost
OF life in the big city down to figures of Gu
rIously small dimensions. she enjoys her
small economics and her occasional BO-
hemianism thoroughly, laughs the merri.
est OF laughs as she reveals to you this
and that of her original devices, and ap
preciates concert or a rare evening at
The theatre all the more fully tor the
counting of pennies, the remOdeling of
the old gown or retrimming of the aged
hat that it has cost. she is thorough
woman, and the best OF all women-one
who s in earnest.
HOW DO THEY STAND THE STRAIN?
The wiseacres have been IN the way Of
shaking their heads obviously over the
prospect. IL WAS absurd, they said, to
point to the average graduate Of the
wOmen's colleges as sample OF what
the "higher education" could do. The
true test came when any OF these gradu-
aJes attempted to fit Tor serious work ia
any serious profession. The girls ct the
WOman's Medical College in New York,
at they appear IN the classroom. are very
fair specimens OF physical health. Now
and then it happens that one of them
leaves the school because of some acle
or ailment. Dr.. Blackwell Tells me that
1t is really impossible AS Yet to get any
satisiac DRY test Of the relative endurance
OF young men and women students in the
professional schools, because the girls as
yet labor under special and temporary
DISADVANTAGES For one thing the classes
- the wOman's college are smaller, so
uuUu smaller that the personal "quiZ" is
vet pGsslb Each student is a n ark ed
individual, whose progress is noted more
closely than Ia the larger assembidges OF
the other sex, and who is therefore in
many instances working harder. Added
TO this tue woman medical student, though
her numbers are increasing every year,
yet feels herself In somewhat abnormal
position, and ner natural Instinct Is to
Justify her action in stepping out o. the
beaten paths OF the feminine sisteFnOOd